Back-to-Back Wins for SU

SELINSGROVE, Pa. – For the second straight game it came down to the wire and for the second straight game the Susquehanna men's basketball team was able to hang on for the win as the Crusaders defeated Elizabethtown 67-65 on Wednesday night.

While it was a team effort, the performance of senior Spenser Spencer (Seattle, Wash./Lakeside) was the highlight of the night as he scored 28 points, 24 of which came from beyond the arc. Spencer shot 8-of-11 from three-point range marking the second-most treys scored in a single game in SU history. The all-time mark is held by Matt Heimbach, who netted nine threes in 1994 vs. Wesley

The Crusaders (2-4) shot 48 percent as a team and 53 percent from three-point range, all of which came from Spencer's performance.

Tony Seldon (Bloomfield, Conn./Northwest Catholic) led the team with eight rebounds while also adding six points, four steals and two blocks.

Freshman Matt McGugan (Silver Spring, Md./Blake) scored 10 points to go along with three rebounds and two assists and it was his free throw in the closing seconds that helped seal the win.

After just over seven minutes of play, SU already held an 11-point edge, 16-5, thanks in part to a dunk from Seldon at the 12:46 mark. A McGugan free throw kept it an 11-point game (19-8) with 10:14 to play before the Blue Jays (1-6) went on a 12-1 run to make the score 21-20 with 5:54 remaining.

Susquehanna countered with an 11-point run of its own to go up by 12 (32-20) and eventually took a 32-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

That double-digit lead did not last long, however. Elizabethtown scored 10 of the half's first 14 points and tied it at 38 on a Will Schlosser three-pointer with 15:29 on the clock. A Phil Wenger free throw one minute later put the Blue Jays ahead 39-38 but that was the last lead they would hold.

The Crusaders went back up by as many as seven points (57-50) with 6:11 to play and held off Elizabethtown thanks in part to two blocks and a McGugan free throw over the final 1:24 of action.

The men are back on the road on Friday and Saturday at the King's Tournament. They face Carnegie Mellon on Friday at 6 p.m.